At Integrated Medicine of Mount Kisco, Dr. Michael B. Wald has created a “paperless” office with the transition to electronic medical records in the holistic health-care practice he founded and now operates with Dr. Nilay Shah. The conversion might have saved less time and wood-pulp products at their 495 Main St. office than in many doctors”™ offices.
Wald about 15 years ago stopped processing patients”™ insurance paperwork, departing from the traditional business model along with many of the traditional services and approach to health care of an M.D.”™s office. Patients at Integrated Medicine pay in advance of or at the time of their office visits and file direct claims with their insurers for any covered services.
The change eliminated chronic administrative and bill-collection headaches and added valuable study time for Wald, a self-branded “blood detective” whose intensive nutritional analyses and prescribed nutritional regimens are designed to prevent and in some cases reverse diseases in patients.
“We are a cash practice,” Wald said recently during a busy afternoon at his facility, where some patients awaited blood lab test results and nutritional counseling and dietary supplements while others sought wrinkle-removing cosmetic injections or laser liposuction performed by Shah, medical director of the partners”™ complementary business and loss leader for the their practice, Holistic Med Spa and Laser. Considered an out-of-network provider by HMOs and other health insurance plans, Integrated Medicine instead relies on patient referrals to build its business.
Wald, who holds postgraduate degrees in chiropractic, naturopathy and nutrition along with his medical degree, said he lost about 30 percent of his patients when he stopped taking insurance. “Then I grew a practice with those 40 percent that really got the value” of health care that integrates current medical and software technologies with herbal, chelation, intravenous hydrogen peroxide and other therapies often scorned or ignored by mainstream medical professionals.
“We create value with patients by teaching them how to take care of themselves,” said Wald. “A wellness visit with us, we actually teach them about wellness.” While treating disease is the chief focus of traditional medicine, “We are actively delivering health care along with disease care,” he said.
Nutrition is the foundation of the practice”™s health care offerings. “You are not what you eat. You are what you absorb from what you eat,” said Wald. “All diseases are either caused by nutritional problems or result in them. You can”™t treat everything nutritionally and you can”™t and should not treat everyone with medications.
“We focus on longevity medicine. Our goals for patients are not just getting them well but keeping them well so they live a higher quality of life and a longer life.”
Wald said patients pay about $3,000 for a “longevity package” that includes lab tests to assess hundreds of metabolic areas that are life-span indicators. The tests can detect “small problems before they”™re big problems,” he said. Given their test results, patients are counseled on proper nutrition and diet, exercise and stress management.
“We meet people where they are,” he said. “Realistic choices that they can sustain over a lifetime is what we”™re looking for.”
Wald said the longevity package is included in the concierge medical service that he started three years ago in Mount Kisco. Patients pay either $8,000 for six months or $15,000 for one year of the enhanced personal service, which includes around-the-clock access to Wald and Shah by patients given the doctor”™s cell-phone numbers.
“We do house calls,” Wald said of the concierge service. “We do whatever it takes for patients.”
With new lab work for concierge patients taken every four months, “Sometimes we find stuff that is just starting,” said Wald. “That”™s when we want to find it.
“The concierge program in our approach is not to depress patients; it”™s to uncover things that people can be proactive about.”
Wald said about 95 percent of patients pre-pay for their care at Integrated Medicine. “Very few pay as they come in.”
“Maybe one-third of what we do, patients might get reimbursed for some of it” when filing direct claims with their insurance carriers, he said.
The physicians said they have seen a rise in needy cases at their cash-only practice. Dr. Shah said 25 percent of their patient base for nutritional treatment typically has been charity cases “where we subsidize their treatment. Unfortunately, in the last year and half, that number has gone up to 35, 40 percent.”
Those same economic pressures also could increase demand for concierge care from patients, said Wald.
“I think people with all their stress are getting sicker,” he said, “so that concierge service is growing.”
Very cool… more doctors should do this. They can deliver a product/service people want, without the problems of insurance companies and ObamaCare.
They do this because Dr. Wald is not a medical doctor as he would like you to believe he is.
He can’t take insurance without an MD degree with the treatment he is practicing. He tries to pass himself off as an MD but he is a chiropractor….
That is why they don’t take insurance….that the long and short of it…
Our practice is holistically structured to serve people with health care and not merely disease care Chris. Chiropractors can accept insurance just as medical doctors can. I do not practice chiropractic I focus on nutrition and have years of experience and advanced degrees in this subject. I did earn an MD degree for well-rounded knowledge, but leave the medications to those MDs who practice symptom suppression (certainly needed sometimes). I had estimated spending almost 40% of my time around insurance reimbursement previously. I soon realized that if I spent this time on my patients health I could provide something really special. Very proud of the model I helped invent. Thank you very much for your comments.
Medical doctors provide drugs and surgery. I provide nutritional and lifestyle treatments for health problems that either replace and/or support standard medical treatments. I am not a medical doctor because I do not wish to practice medicine. I am a nutritional doctor. People are demanding that their doctors listen to them; that they take the time to educate them; that they build health and not only suppress symptoms and that they ask “why is this happening and what is the cause(s) – I ask these questions because people deserve to live their lives to the fullest. The question of insurance really comes down to “running health care into the ground”; focusing medical doctors on symptoms and not solutions; and curtailing doctors time for proper patient study as they spend too much time trying to collect pennies on the dollar from corrupt insurance companies. What are your thoughts Chris? Thanks, Dr. Wald
I have seen Wald in the past and I do believe that nutrition can play a role, but I just didn’t trust the practice. It seems like a money pit where you are not sure of the results or the end game. Also not sure why they are allowing people through ‘team health solutions’ claiming both ‘Abundant Health and Abundant Wealth’ to operate a health practice. Seems a bit suspect when just ‘anyone’ can work the magic.
Jonny, sorry that you feel the way that you do, but the majority of our patients love and appreciate our work. As you know, many people have gripes with their doctors no matter what type of health care they practice – this is the way it goes. We make great efforts to satisfy all patients. If you or any other patient is unclear about the “end game” as you put it, then you should bring this to the doctors attention so that matters can be clarified. After all, health care is more complex on average than is traditional disease care. Team Health Solutions offers people access to simple screening tests that provide individualized nutritional suggestions for simple health care issues. I strongly believe, and all of this and more is on the short video that that was posted for Team Health Solutions, that people should make some real attempt on their own to manage their health. If their efforts are unsuccessful then they should see some one like me. As far as “work the magic” as you say, anyone cannot do this, but with some access to reliable and not so expensive testing, they at least can do something “real” for themselves. The testimonials on our website clearly demonstrate that most people are getting the “end game”; but I invite you back so that we can clarify – free of charge! Thanks for the feedback.